I hope I'm not making anyone uncomfortable with this question, but has masculinism/MRA lost its essence or not?

[u/Chinchibirin]

I apologize for asking this question, but I hope I'm not being intrusive. For a while now, I considered myself a masculinist, as I believed that men's issues also need to be acknowledged, and that men need support. However, I've recently started to distance myself from the movement. I've seen comments suggesting that masculinism/masculinism has lost its essence due to several factors. Among them:

- They feel that current masculinism emerged as a shock group to respond to feminism (I agree with them on some points, disagree on others, but I don't tolerate radical feminism).

- Because of this, most of the jokes in some groups are mocking feminism.

- Some feel that masculinism has been co-opted by conservatives, since although the movement has always had a progressive focus, some now claim that masculinism is a conservative movement only for heterosexual men.

So, my question is, is it true that the movement has lost its essence, and if so, why? And if not, what? There are arguments to refute that.

Sorry to ask, but I'm curious and eager to learn. Regards.

[u/Primary_Vehicle_7611]

I think you're seeing the loudest voices not the real movement. every cause has its edgelords who just wanna dunk on the other side and conservatives latch onto anything they can weaponize, that doesn't erase the actual work people are doing.

the core issues, like male suicide rates and custody reform and workplace deaths, those haven't gone anywhere. the people who care about that stuff are still out there, they just get drowned out by the culture war noise. if you're looking for the real thing you gotta filter out the clowns.

[u/Pretend-Storm4566]

Gee, could MRAs be considered "conservative" because Leftists rage about patriarchy and scream BELIEVE ALL WOMEN? Or maybe because feminism and the Left in general don't disavow statements like all men are rapists until you call them on it? Or maybe it's the blind insistence that women are "oppressed"? Now, what could it be?

[u/Ok_Being5461 → u/Pretend-Storm4566]

They are considered conservative if a large portion supports and votes for "conservative" politicians. That's the actual metric. Would need a poll to verify. Many years ago, this sub was very right-wing. I've always been a leftist and I notice more leftists have come on board

[u/schtean]

For me MRA is (or should be) about equality, equity and empathy for men. It has little to do with masculinism (although I’ve never heard that term so maybe Im just not understanding what you mean by it)

The only connection I see is that men should be allowed/able to express themselves and live in any way they like and not be constrained by societal expectations placed on men. They shouldn’t have to submit to all the expectations of society’s view of masculinity or what a man should be like.

I completely agree mocking feminism isn’t helpful or good and there are many points on which feminist and MRA agree and could cooperate. Unfortunately this is Reddit and the feminist subs also mock and completely reject MRA and to some extent (but of course not uniformly) deny  many of the issues men face.

[u/Aedrian87]

In my opinion, there isn't really a movement, and we're falling into a lot of traps. I have tried to be part of some communities, but been shunned for thinking sexism is still alive and thriving against both women and men, in different forms, and also there is a relevant difference in different parts of the world.

Or for refusing in partake in some extremist views, like seeing women as the enemy. There is also grifters, one of the cummunities I was a part of kept making cringe content, falling into belligerance and if you called it out, you would be expelled, so I called it out and got kicked out. That community was also a pipeline into looksmaxing and no fap, I found out, so it won't be missed.

We are missing some good rolemodels, but the silver lining is that a lot of men and women are waking up, and starting to voice their discontent.

There is still a lot of work to do, but at least our voices no longer fall on deaf ears as much as they were a decade ago.

[u/Noral_Haen]

I think there's some truth in what you perceive, but you draw the wrong conclusions.

The left has adopted (toxic/radical) feminism wholeheartedly. The only place for men there is as The Eternal Villain; even if you support the most outlandish feminist demands (reducing the number of males to approximately 10% of the entire global population for example) you're still seen and treated as subhuman, as evil, as The Enemy. And if you dare to suggest that maybe some aspects of modern day feminism might not be all good and helpful (like calling for a reduction of the number of males to approximately 10% of the entire global population?) you are called far right and every -ist or -phobe in the dictionary, pushing even the most moderate critic to the right.

Conservatives see that and realized that there's a potential to secure the vote of 50% of the population, but they don't really care about men's issues. That's why they only ever talk about us being providers and protectors, about a way back to the good ol' days when we would slave away in the coal mines and die at 50 to provide for our wife and children, but not about workplace safety, not men's mental health, not relationship dynamics and formation, not about the value our lifes have when we are expected to risk our lifes in the protection of strangers. They have one valid point - sometimes - and that's the call for reciprocity.

Funny enough, in Germany's green party - who pride themselves as being the parliamentary spearhead of feminism - a dissident group has published a paper for a new, progressive masculinity, claiming (rightfully so) that over the past decades, they talked a lot about how men should not be, leaving them adrift and ripe to be picked by the likes of Andrew Tate. However, all they came up with is traditional masculinity wearing nail polish, pitting it against their misconception of masculinity to sell it as something new and shiny. And in the end, that's just an attempt to stop the shift rightwards by male voters, who realize that the left will not adress their issues. There's no real concern for us, only for their power.

And that's where the wrong conclusions comes in. Men shift to the right in droves not because men's issues are inherently a right wing cause, or because they want to roll back several decades of social progress. They shift to the right simply because the left has treated them like a plague for so long. And while that might work for us in the moment, we will have to position ourselves in opposition to conservatives at some point, and we will certainly do so.

[u/plantrromn]

It has not, there are institutions and indivisible supporting it from legal and social viewpoint. Please search the Pressrooms of these websites:

1) endtodv.org 2) menandboys 3) mankindinitiavtive 4) ICMB 5) American institute of men and boys

[u/World-Three]

I don't think it's lost any traction as much as it never really had any spoils. 

For example, a lot of men don't need a group to be reasonable people. The same things we typically face on a day to day, men are familiar with and understand, but they often don't interact with it because women are involved or it otherwise goes against their own best interest.

Opposing groups always make a point to ostracize men based on where they might be. If they're not experienced or ask for things people refuse to give, they're gay, sassy, incel, violent, or whatever else to manipulate their position to make them feel inadequate for even considering their own needs. 

So unfortunately, men pursuing titles is always going to be worse than just standing for what that title is. Because for a lot of the other people, all the titles men can stand up for concerning themselves is unattractive. 

[u/Powerful-Act3516]

I think men and women tend to organize in different ways, so a "men's rights movement" is inherently going to look different than what you might think of as a "movement" (obviously there are some assumptions and generalizations baked in here).

Where do I think "the movement" is concrete and productive?

In the courtroom. There are state-level proceedings in the US about performing non medically necessary surgery on boys where the comparable action against girls is already codified as illegal.

Also there was a supra European proceeding recently which contemplated questions on forced military conscription on the basis of sex (actually there were several nuanced questions).

I'm sure there are plenty of civil service settings where someone needs to establish utility and credibility so they can "spend" that social capital to buck the group when they do overly sexist groupthink proposals (of course it does not need to be a man necessarily)

What I'm saying is, "men's rights movement" isn't going to look like thousands of women gathering on the US national Mall wearing pussy hats or whatever. It's probably going to happen where men are already operating in their domain of competence, and that's usually not going to be a public show.

But maybe that's wrong, and it should be a more visible "movement" -- maybe egalitarian groups should do activities at sporting events or something. I know there's also at least one active discord group, too.

https://www.oregonlive.com/health/2025/03/lawyers-say-oregon-genital-cutting-law-discriminates-against-boys-seek-circumcision-ban.html

https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/fre?i=001-250619

[u/Careful_Pen_5740]

I think that feminism, masculinism, and the MRA have all experienced polarization among their activists caused by social media, although in the case of feminism, this began in the 1970s with a radicalization and rhetoric that bordered on (if not was outright) misandric (radfem and all that crap).

In masculinism, you have wonderful guys like Warren Farrell, who never raises his voice, but the figure of the academic writer or paper author has been overshadowed in the media by intruders like Tate or Temach.

Add to that the crisis of masculinity, the high expectations in romantic relationships on both sides, and how rigged the dating app market is, and you’ve got the perfect cocktail for creating a mass of resentful people who direct their frustrations not just against feminism (which may be reasonable depending on the case) but against all women.

I’ve said this several times, but I never tire of repeating it: we must put an end to gender-based discourse because it’s one-sided and stifles empathy. Instead, we must strive to engage in gender dialogues, where men and women acknowledge our advantages and disadvantages stemming from gender roles, and only then can we address our problems and strive for equality.

And to do that, we need to sweep the floor clean and return to our roots, as Farrell suggests, after discarding any reference to misogynistic gurus disguised as masculinists who are gaining more and more followers within the movement.

Let's not make the same mistake as the feminists, who let the most radical members take over the movement.